My Exact 2 Week Alaska Itinerary: Anchorage to Seward to Denali to Fairbanks

This is my exact 2 week Alaska itinerary from start to finish. Not a roundup of every stop possible, this is exactly where we went and the logistics that made it work. Use my Alaska travel itinerary to help plan your own DIY Alaska trip.

Seven of us did this trip together, late August into September, and I tracked pretty much everything as we went. Below is exactly where we went, in what order, and how long it actually took to do these activities and get from place to place.

For the group logistics, check out my DIY Alaska Group Trip post. And if you want the real numbers behind all of this, here’s what 2 weeks in Alaska actually cost.

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Route at a Glance

Why We Built the Route This Way

A few decisions behind this specific route, in case you’re trying to figure out your own version of it:

One direction, no backtracking. We flew into Anchorage and out of Fairbanks instead of doing a loop back to Anchorage. It costs a little more in flight logistics (two one-way tickets instead of one round trip, more on that in my Alaska budget breakdown), but it saved us an entire day of driving we’d have otherwise spent retracing our own route.

Roughly 3 nights per stop, one exception. Three nights gives you two full days in a place without feeling like you’re constantly packing and unpacking. Fairbanks got a fourth night specifically because we wanted extra shots at the northern lights, more on whether that extra night was worth it in the What We’d Change section below.

Skipping Homer and Whittier. Both were on the table. With 14 days, we made a call to keep things simple instead of spreading ourselves thin. This was the right call. If you’re not headed to Fairbanks it’d be reasonable to look at adding one of these back in.

Everything stayed reachable by rental car. Shearwater Cove is the one exception (boat access only), and even that was a short, scheduled ride from a town we were already staying in. We didn’t build in any flights, water taxis, or transfers we had to plan around beyond that one.

Cell service is spotty in a few spots, but the drives are simple. We had Mint Mobile and had service most places, just not at Shearwater Cove and a few remote stretches. It never felt unsafe or stressful, the roads on this route are mostly one main road that goes one place, so getting lost isn’t really a risk even where signal drops.

Why We Went Late August Into September

We didn’t agonize over this, we did a little research, picked what looked like a nice window, and it turned out perfectly.

We landed right at the tail end of the season for a few things without really planning it that way, Shearwater Cove was running shoulder-season pricing and we were one of the last groups of season to stay there and we went the week before Major Marine closed the Kenai Fjords tour for the year. The weather cooperated the whole trip, with some light misting here and there. And we caught real fall color in both Denali and Fairbanks. One week later, they had snow in the forcast for Denali. We felt like we had really great timing, and we said so more than once while we were there.

When to Actually Book Everything

We booked flights and most accommodations back in March for a late-August trip, that’s the kind of lead time worth giving yourself for peak summer travel. Everything else came together closer to the trip:

• Shearwater Cove: booked July 3
• Kenai Fjords Cruise (Major Marine): booked August 6
• Fairbanks aurora tour: booked August 14, and availability was already thinning out for our week by then

We didn’t book anything once we’d actually arrived, since we knew our dates for everything going in. It’s worth reserving the popular stuff before you go.

Day 1: Arrival in Anchorage

We landed, picked up the rental van, and drove straight to our Airbnb in the Rabbit Creek area of Anchorage. First stop after dropping bags: Fred Meyer. If you haven’t been to one, it’s a full grocery store, department store, and pharmacy all in one, and it’s enormous. You’ll be back here more than once if you’re staying in Anchorage for a few days. We took the evening to catch up as a group and enjoy the gorgeous views from our accommodation.

Day 2: Flattop Trail and Beluga Point

Flattop Trail was our first real hike of the trip, and it delivered immediately, we saw three moose, two of them together, one with a full rack of antlers. Great views back over Anchorage and the inlet.

Quick note if you’re researching this one yourself: we started from the trailhead on Canyon Road, which Google Maps lists as Sunnyside Trailhead, but it’s also known as Backside Flattop Trail. It looks like the official name got changed at some point and both names are still floating around online, so don’t be thrown off if you see conflicting info, it’s the same trail. We picked this side specifically because it’s less busy than the main Flattop trail and doesn’t have the scramble section near the top.

We followed that with brunch at South Restaurant (I had a great shakshuka) and a chill afternoon at Beluga Point along the Seward Highway, a solid, easy stop to explore the beach and watch for whales. Another Fred Meyer run closed out the day.

Day 3: Eagle River and Kincaid Park

A slower morning (moose sighting right at the end of our driveway will do that to you), then out to Eagle River Nature Center. On the way, we made an unplanned stop at a pulloff for Chugach State Park’s North Fork Eagle River area, a short walk over a bridge to the river. Not a must-do by any means, but it was nice to explore.

We wanted to hike the boardwalk trail at Eagle River Nature Center, but it was closed due to bear activity. The salmon were running, which meant active bears, so the closure made sense. We hiked a different trail from there instead.

On our way to the other side of Anchorage we made a stop downtown to eat at 49th State Brewing, where I had yummy fish and chips. Honest take on downtown Anchorage itself though: it’s kind of a “meh” area to just wander. Nothing particularly wrong with it, I just wouldn’t call it a destination in it’s own right.

After that we went to Kincaid Park, which has a reputation for moose sightings. We didn’t see any that day, but we still enjoyed the coastal trail walk out to the beach. We spent some time at the beach then grabbed groceries for our upcoming Shearwater Cove stay the next day. A few of us went back into town and ended the night at Anchorage Brewing Company. It’s tucked into an industrial district and looks completely unassuming from the outside, but the tasting room is genuinely cool, and the outdoor space with fire pits was a great way to close out our Anchorage stretch.

Day 4: Anchorage to Seward, Then Out to Shearwater Cove

We left Anchorage around 7am to give ourselves plenty of buffer. The drive to Tern Lake Pullover took about an hour and a half, and was a great place to stop, stretch our legs, and take some photos. Tern Lake to Seward is another 45 minutes or so from there. We parked near the docks and had some time to poke around a few shops in town before heading to the docks to meet up with our boat for Shearwater Cove.

We met Emily, our boat captain for Shearwater Cove, right at the harbor. She turned out to have friends back in our hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, first of several Michigan connections on this trip. Part of our group split off here to stay at Orca Island Cabins, whose boat left a few hours after ours.

On the boat ride out, we watched a sea otter eating a crab. Shearwater itself blew past expectations, we saw lots of wildlife and it was so lush and green in a way I wasn’t expecting from Alaska. We did a forest hike, a beach hike, checked out the yoga space, and spotted jellyfish and starfish before heading out for an afternoon of self-guided sea kayaking in Humpy Cove.

We paddled down the inlet toward where the waterfall spills into the river, and the river opens into the bay. The wildlife activity here was nonstop, and we pulled our kayaks up onto the rocks so we could get out and spend some time here. Thousands of salmon, near the end of their run, were pushing upstream and we enjoyed watching four river otters fishing together and a curious seal who stayed around a long time playing and swimming around until it finally dove under and caught a fish. We also saw many beautiful bald eagles in this area too.

The stay at Shearwater Cove was one of the highlights of the whole trip. More on that here.

Day 5: Leaving Shearwater, Into Seward

We left Shearwater at 8:30am and were back in Seward by about 9:15am, boat ride back is the same roughly 45 minutes as the ride out. Some of us got in first, with the rest of the group trickling in from Orca Island a few hours later. Once everyone had regrouped, we checked out the Alaska SeaLife Center. I don’t usually love aquariums, but this one was done quite well and was very educational. The work they do is worth supporting.

After that we spent some time at Lowell Point Beach before heading to our next accommodation.

We checked into our stay at Sourdough Lodging in Seward, and spent the evening chilling around the accommodation and grabbing groceries at the Safeway.

Day 6: Kenai Fjords Cruise

The Major Marine 7.5-Hour Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise was one of the best things we did on the entire trip. I’d done a ton of research beforehand comparing Major Marine against the other major operator, Kenai Fjords Tours (part of the Alaska Collection), and went with Major Marine for two reasons: they’re locally owned, and they assign seating, so there’s no scramble to claim a good spot on the boat the second you board.

That mattered more than I expected. You spend most of the trip out on deck anyway, front or back depending on what’s happening, so not having to stress about seats from minute one made the whole day more relaxed. Lunch was included, and the crew was knowledgeable.

The wildlife alone justified the cost: bald eagles, a humpback whale, many otter sightings including a raft of 20+, Steller sea lions, and both tufted and horned puffins. We got to see some huge calvings of Aialik Glacier and all of the harbor seals resting on the ice there were so cute. The glacier margarita was a fun addition with the 600 year old glacier ice scooped right from the water before our eyes. While making our way back toward resurrection bay we finally stumbled upon a super pod of 40+ orcas!

Day 7: Seward to Healy (Denali)

This is the drive a lot of people online will tell you not to do in one day, “too long,” “too much to see on the way,” that kind of thing. I disagree for the most part, and I’ve got a full post coming on exactly why.

The logistics: we left Seward at 9am and arrived in Healy at 10:45pm. That’s a long day, no way around it. Along the way we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a couple of viewpoints, and Talkeetna for dinner and a walk around town, where we got an incredible clear view of Denali’s summit and ran into more people from Michigan. We stopped at one more viewpoint for Denali on the way into Healy.

Day 8: Denali National Park, Transit Bus Day

We deliberately chose the transit bus (7:30am departure) over a narrated tour bus, and we’re glad we did. These are two different products in Denali, not just different names for the same thing.

Our driver still stopped for wildlife and shared plenty of information along the way, but a transit bus lets you get off and back on a later bus whenever you want, rather than staying locked to one guided loop. We rode it all the way to where the road is closed at mile 43 due to the ongoing landslide-related closure. Denali was still one of my favorite days of the entire trip even with the park not being fully open. I was immidiately already looking forward to going back once the road reopens further in.

This was one of the wildest days of the entire trip. We saw 4+ moose and a couple of mountain goats before the bus dropped us where the road ends at Savage River. We hiked along the riverbed a ways and then headed back, once we were almost back to the stairs we noticed a ranger waving and saying something over a megaphone. They were telling everyone to stay put, as was bear activity between us and the stairs back up. We felt perfectly safe waiting it out, we were a group of 7 standing with a handful of other hikers, so nobody was really alone out there.

After a bit, the rangers told us it was clear to come up, but that they were shutting the area down for the day. A sow, her cub, and a boar were all in the area, and the working theory was that the boar was trying to get to the cub, which is exactly the kind of situation you want rangers actively managing.

Once we were up and across the bridge where everyone was told to wait, we watched a group of mountain bikers coming in from the area we just came from. Through binoculars, we saw one of the bears actually running behind them, this is not an exaggeration, before it stopped and turned back toward the river. The bikers were finishing up a 3-day bikepacking and camping trip. They didn’t seem too fazed by any of it, though we’re not sure they even clocked that one had been running behind them a few minutes earlier.

We checked out the visitor center on the way out. It was a fantastic day in the park!

Day 9: Denali, Self-Drive Day

I am really glad we had a second full day in the Denali area. We spent a slow morning and afternoon around the property at our rental then took our van back into the park in the evening. The evening in the park was absolutely breathtaking. I am glad we had two days to split our time in the park between morning/daytime and evening.

We took the van as far as visitors are allowed to drive to the Savage River Loop trail. It was a nice, easy and beautiful walk. Then we headed to the mountain vista picnic area for a short walk and some incredible views. After that we saw a mom and baby moose on the road on our way out of the park.

Day 10: Sled Dogs, Then Fairbanks

Because we had some time before heading up to Fairbanks, we went back to the park to visit the Denali sled dog kennels. We enjoyed lunch at 49th State Brewing in Healy, then packed up and made the drive to our accommodation in North Pole, just outside Fairbanks.

Day 11: North Pole and a Cancelled Aurora Tour

A lazy day by design, we walked around the Christmas store in North Pole and took it easy ahead of a planned aurora tour that night. The tour ended up cancelled due to cloud cover across the entire state.

Honest take on the Christmas store and area: Don’t go out of your way for this. Staying in the North Pole area made sense for us, darker skies and proximity to what we did over the next couple of days, and this was right down the road. But you definitely don’t need to add it to your itinerary otherwise.

Day 12: Chena Hot Springs and the Aurora

We spent lunchtime in downtown Fairbanks, which to be honest is a similar story to Anchorage. It wasn’t anything special in my opinion but the visitors center is quite nice if you have some time. That evening we went to Chena Hot Springs and the Aurora Ice Museum. We split an appletini served in a glass carved from ice, which is exactly as fun as it sounds. The hot springs themselves were a great soak, and then the northern lights showed up right above us briefly while we were still in the water.

After the hot springs, around 11:30pm, we stopped at a roadside viewing spot on the way back and caught the aurora again, this time alongside an aurora tour group that had set up at the same spot. Considering we didn’t get to do our planned tour the night before, this was a great thing to happen.

Day 13: A Fall Hike and Wrapping Up

A slow morning, then a nice hike at Chena Lakes Recreation Area on the river trail. The birch forest was beautiful and was really giving all the fall vibes. Back to the cabin for one more soak in the hot tub that night.

Day 14: Packing Up and Flying Home

We packed up in the morning and had brunch at The Crepery in Fairbanks before splitting off in smaller groups, as everyone started to catch their flights home. We had some time to spare before our evening flight so walked around a bit and did some work at the crêperie which has outlets. After having dinner at Soba we caught an uber to the airport.

We flew home on a red-eye, and I’d specifically booked a left-side window seat for exactly this reason: we saw the northern lights from the plane on the way home!

What We’d Change

A few honest notes for next time:

• I’d trade one Fairbanks night for an extra night based out of Anchorage. The day trips from Anchorage consistently outperformed what we got from the Fairbanks area.
• We never made it to Hatcher Pass or the Reed Lake trailhead, and it’s the one regret of the trip. We weren’t sure our rental van could handle the road out there and ran out of time to look into it properly.
• We skipped Homer and Whittier entirely. With two weeks and a larger group, we made a call to keep things concise rather than try to cover everything, and we don’t regret that tradeoff for this trip.

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